With talk of Wilf going and others who come to their end of their stint with us, how does everyone think the club should approach transfers from now on?

1) Buy proven young talent and bring through
2) Buy players on high wages but on the fringes of a top 6 teams first eleven
3) bring our own talent through

For me i'd like to see us follow the Ajax model which essentially focusses on 1 & 3. I think we've been caught out in recent seasons getting players on the fringes of top 6 teams who want stupid money.

Wages are the killer, but by focusing on international U21, U19 talent you can build a squad that allows players to move on whilst having cover to come through.

Thoughts?

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World

...you've hit the nail on the head. 1 & 3 only work if you have a good scouting network, we are clearly lacking in that area at the minute

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World

Cucking has a good scouting network he taps into during evenings and scout camps.

COYP

In an ideal world I'd agree but I think the reason we have kept well out of the bottom 3 is largely to do with having experienced Prem quality battlers in our team. The Townsends, the PVA's, the Schlupp's, the Sakho's, the Tompkin's are the reason we are still a Premiership team. Proud as I am that our club have yet again produced another quality academy product in AWB we wont produce enough of them and if we did the lack of experience would kill us in the end.
I think a mixture of both is the way forward but something does need to be done about our wage bill. It is becoming unsustainable for a club of our size.

Id agree with this, and that its given us the platform to now look at changing things whilst in a relative period of stability.

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World

Think Glenns had his swansong now, but will always be our worst transfer error, but if we could get rid of the deadwood i would give him a years contract on a free, think he has a lot to coach the younger forwards

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn